Listening to Lisa Ling recite grim example after sobering statistic about poverty, abuse, human trafficking and oppression during her keynote address at the Women’s Foundation Luncheon, it was easy to fall into the kind of funk that manifests when it looks like problems are too widespread or entrenched to solve.
Sugarcoating an issue isn’t in the journalist’s DNA, and if any of the 2,000 who’d come to the Colorado Convention Center thinking her remarks would focus on what really goes on behind the scenes at “The View,” which she co-hosted for several years before becoming a special correspondent for the National Geographic Channel and the Oprah Show, were surely disappointed.
But Ling is also smart enough to know that sending an audience home — especially one filled with people who have the means and the power to effect change — with nothing more than a feeling of hopelessness and despair isn’t such a hot idea, either.
So she ended her talk by sharing a story that packed quite a punch.
It had to do with an idealistic woman who questioned her faith after witnessing a young girl, clad only in a thin dress, standing in the freezing cold. “Why, God, why would you permit this? Why don’t you do something?” the woman wondered. “I did,” God replied. “I created you.”

***

The luncheon chaired by Luella Chavez D’Angelo, Barbara Grogan and Essie Perlmutter raised $700,000 for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and its efforts to give girls and women the means to achieve strong, healthy and financially secure lives.
The $1 million in grants given this year have, among other things, helped create awareness for challenges low-income women face in accessing the consistent, quality childcare necessary to allow them to work and provide for their children; provided victims of domestic violence with job readiness skills so that they can re-enter the work force; and funded housing and caseworkers for girls who are transitioning out of the foster care system.Gretchen Gagel McComb is the foundation’s president and chief executive officer; Christine Benero chairs the board of trustees. The Western Union Foundation was the luncheon’s presenting sponsor; Aetna was the speaker sponsor.
Colorado first lady Jeannie Ritter; her predecessor, Frances Owens; Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper were among the guests, as was another former first lady, Dottie Lamm. Lamm was the first to chair foundation’s board of trustees, and the Dottie Lamm Award that is given each year to outstanding high school students was established to commemorate her service.
The 2009 winners are Megan Colvin and Alyssa Kaspersen, both juniors at John F. Kennedy High School.
Colvin is the youngest of Denver’s 150 Unsung Heroes, is active in the PeaceJam Foundation, Veterans of Hope and the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. She hopes to become a veterinarian. Kaspersen has been elected class president two years in a row and is one of four students on the district’s board of education. She has made a community service trip to Mexico, where she and classmates built a house for a needy family in just four days. Her goal is to become an architectural engineer.
Two other special guests at the luncheon were Joy Johnson and Mary Sissel, co-chairs of the foundation’s ambitious Power The Change endowment campaign. Their 18-month drive netted $11 million from 1,400 donors. Kathleen Eck, Barbara Ipsaro, Sister Lydia Pena, Mary Stuart and Christine Benero served on the campaign’s steering committee; others helping with the drive were Letty Bass, Kelly Berger, Barbara Bridges, Jan Carroll, Patricia Cooper, Maggie Fox, Rhondda Grant, Anna Jo Haynes, Arlene Hirschfeld, Irene Ibarra, Katherine Peck, Dr. Dean Prina and Marilyn Taylor.
Aetna’s Regina Hunter introduced the speaker; Denise Whinnen, deputy director of community relations, announced that the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado would match any donations made to the foundation that day, up to $25,000.
Other luncheon guests were Suzanne Arkle Wilson; Bernadette Marquez; CBS4 general manager Walt DeHaven; Susan Kiely; Carol Burt; Connie Graham; Denise Lutz; Bryan Wright; William Recht; Lindy Eichenbaum Lent; Patricia Barela Rivera; Caz Matthews; Sheila Rudofsky; Vicki Dansky; Carol Karsh; Sharon Linhart; Robin Wise; Elana Hirschfeld; Viki Thompson; Kristin Richardson; Margot Gilbert Frank; and Ellen Robinson.